Heather closed the book and added it to the pile of those she had devoured. The magical room was beginning to feel small, and she longed to spend some time in the sunlight. For five days, they had traveled, and Heather spent most of that time studying spells, lore, and magical principles.
Over the course of those days, they traveled out of the desert and into barren hills. Now, at last, the landscape was starting to change, and trees were appearing in clumps in the low areas. Every morning she held up the bracelet and used it to point the way before retreating to her studies. Blackbast, Frank, and Legeis took the lead and carried them forward to the unknown.
In the distance, they could see greener land, and Blackbast assured them they were heading into heavily settled areas. There were many towns and cities ahead and a myriad of player kingdoms. Frank had asked if there was a way to go around it, but Blackbast assured him it would take weeks to do so. There was some concern about Legeis and Umtha being goblins, and plans were made for Umtha to ride inside the magic room while in heavily populated areas. Legeis would wear his scarves and googles while hidden inside his armor where it would be difficult to see him. He would be passed off as a gnome if anybody asked, and they wouldn’t linger anywhere long enough to draw suspicion.
Heather groaned and leaned back on her chair as her eyes fell on the empty plate that had once held cookies. She longed to visit the cities and hunt for more books. Blackbast had let slip that there would be temples to divine powers, and some of these might be infernal gods. Heather immediately asked if this meant they knew unholy magic, and Blackbast reluctantly said yes. Now she longed to spend just a few hours talking to one of these priests to learn some basic spells.
With closed eyes, she focused her sight to see through the eyes of the spider riding on the palanquin. Webster was on the roof, looking far into the distance. She often found looking through his eyes unsettling as his field of view was much wider than her own. He was immediately aware she was looking and heard his squeaky voice in her head. He was hungry as always and encouraged her to come out and summon a cloud of bats.
Rubbing at her temples, she relented and rose from the chair before heading for the portal out. It would do some good to see the sunlight for herself instead of through the eyes of a spider. She stepped through the opening into the palanquin, shielding her eyes from the sunlight.
“Decided to join us, have you?” Breanne asked as Heather squinted.
“I ran out of cookies,” she replied and climbed to the doorway of the palanquin. “Where is Quinny?”
“Upfront with Frank and the others. She wanted to run for a little bit,” Breanne replied.
Heather admired the undead's ability to run for hours without getting tired. Their bodies didn't need food, air, or water, and they never needed to sleep. They couldn't get sick, and most poisons were useless against them. In many ways, they were the perfect life form, except that most of them were hideous to look at. Quinny was the exception; despite being a zombie, she was still attractive. Frank was her polar opposite, whose appearance used to send chills down her spine.
“I wish I could run as long as you guys can,” Heather said with a sigh and sat at the door.
“I float,” Breanne said with a smile before noting the tired look on Heather's face. “Goodness, you look pale. Have you been sleeping?”
“As much as I can,” Heather replied with a weak smile. “I am getting tired of sitting here or on the chair in the room. I want to see some of these cities and meet the people. I keep hearing about all the wonders that can be found, but I never have a chance to see them.”
“I don't think it's really a problem for you to spend time in a city,” Breanne began. “I think the real issue is the sense of urgency about you. We all feel as if your situation requires us to rush forward, or some unseen doom will befall you.”
“It does feel like that, doesn’t it?” Heather laughed as Breanne put it so eloquently. “Even I feel like I have to read every page of the necromancy book as quickly as possible. I jump at every thread of information and never finish anything I start.”
“You finished the task for Gwen, fulfilled your promise to Legeis, and completed the construction of our homes,” Breanne reminded to encourage her. “And despite all the potential distractions, you have remained on focus with the egg.”
“What choice do I have,” Heather said with a smirk as she nodded her head to the wall. She knew full well the egg was sitting on the other side, and Umtha was standing guard over it. The goblin woman was insistent that Heather returned the egg to its mother and pressured her to begin.
Breanne smiled back, those sharp elven features looking gentle and kind. She folded her hands in her lap, the blue dress she was wearing gathered around her legs. She always managed to look regal no matter what she wore, and those eyes could be piercing and determined.
“Have you finished the books Blackbast assigned you?” she asked when Heather returned to looking out the door.
“All ten of them in exactly the order she told me to read them,” Heather replied.
“And do you think she was right?” Breanne pressed.
Heather took a deep breath before admitting that maybe Blackbast had been right. The cat woman offered to help Heather focus and finish her tasks. She greatly increased the speed of their travel while also preventing Heather from being disorganized. Heather knew deep down she would be picking her way through a dozen books at once. She had a bad habit of jumping from one to another when a topic or keyword gave her an idea. Blackbast insisted she read them one at a time cover to cover, except for her spell research. She was allowed to take breaks from reading to go to the book of necromancy to practice a new spell. She added over a dozen to her list since they started and looked forward to adding more.
“See, you do finish things,” Breanne reminded again.
Heather shrugged as she considered the truth.“I admit I am pulling in too many directions, but I am not a gamer. A lot of the things you guys know as basic knowledge I have to learn for myself, and I intend to catch up.”
“Yes, but as we said, we all feel as if you have to do this, catching up as rapidly as possible. To be honest, you have all the time you need. You could take a hundred years to catch up if you wanted to.” Breanne looked pleased with her words as Heather leaned out the doorway to look around.
Frank was running at a trot beside Legeis. Blackbast was sitting on the back of Legeis's armor conversing with Quinny, who ran at a trot right behind. The landscape was greener than it was a day ago, with trees and shrubs in abundance. Ahead she could see a dark green line that might be a distant forest at the base of tall jagged hills. Ahead the road ran nearly straight across a landscape that looked like it might once have been farmed. Rotting wooden fences stood in broken lines on wild fields where nothing but weeds grew. A tumble-down wall of what might once have been a farmhouse rested alongside a clump of overgrown trees.
She settled in to relax and spoke to Breanne at length about everything she missed from the real world. When the sun moved and the skin dimmed, she looked out again to see they were just about to enter the forest. She looked up to note that the sky above the forest was different than the one just behind her. Where sun dominated the road, above the forest was an overcast gray that added to the gloom.
“This has to be a player kingdom,” Breanne said as she joined Heather at the door. “The ruler must be a very high level if they have points to spend on the weather.”
“You can alter the weather?” Heather said in surprise as they stepped out of the sun and into the gloom.
“Oh yes, though few players do it. It is an expensive option and is just cosmetic,” Breanne replied as they looked at the passing trees. “You also can't change the weather to something unavailable to the area, so you can't make it snow in the tropics, for example.”
Heather noted they looked a lot like Quinny's forest, with a haunting appearance and wide-spreading dark canopies. Mist crawled in the dark recesses of the forest that seemed unnaturally quiet. Still, there were splashes of color where flowers grew in small clumps or where a fallen tree had created a gap to the sky. The thump of Legeis's armor was the only sound they heard for many long minutes, and Heather began to wonder if they were safe.
“This looks like a haunted forest,” Heather whispered as if afraid to break the silence.
“I am not sure it's a haunted forest, but something feels amiss,” Breanne agreed. “At the very least, this forest has been made to feel spooky intentionally.”
Heather was about to respond when they suddenly stopped, and Blackbast leaped from Legeis's armor. She said something to Frank before she and Quinny walked to the palanquin.
“Is something wrong?” Heather asked as the two arrived.
“I have never been here before,” Blackbast said and took a look around. “But this is a player home or kingdom, and there may be surprises on the road ahead.”
Heather was rather pleased to hear that, as the encounters broke up the boredom. Over the past few days, they had a dozen small encounters with minor monsters and one world-generated bandit raid. None of it posed any real threat and allowed her to practice some new spells.
“Don’t look so hopeful,” Blackbast scolded as she noted the smile on Heather’s face. “We are trying to pass with as little notice as possible.”
“Could we stop in one town at least?” Heather asked. “How am I supposed to learn about the world if I can’t experience it?”
Blackbast looked at Quinny, who admitted she wanted to stop in one too. Breanne suggested they avoid a large city and stop in a modest village where there were likely to be fewer trouble makers.
“Alright, we will stop for a few hours in the next village we find,” Blackbast relented. “But we are leaving before morning.”
“Don't you ever have to sleep?” Heather asked the green-eyed cat woman. Blackbast nodded and explained that she was a cat, and she napped on the back of Legeis's armor suit while they traveled. Blackbast asked them to stay alert and watch the road behind them. Heather immediately relegated that task to Webster, who squeaked his reply in her thoughts.
“You're making the spider watch, aren't you?” Breanne asked as Blackbast returned to the front, and the march resumed.
“He’s got eight eyes, and he can turn invisible. He’s perfect for watching things.” Heather said with a shrug as Quinny climbed in.
“I wonder what else he can do?” Quinny asked as she settled in. She and Breanne looked directly at Heather, who looked back in confusion.
“What?” she asked.
“What else can Webster do?” Quinny pressed.
“How should I know?” Heather said defensively.
“He's your familiar. Ask him,” Breanne remarked as she took a seat near Quinny.
Heather sat at the edge of the door and pointed out that Webster didn't talk about what he could do. Most of the time, he complained about food or finding a warm place to sleep. Still, he was the most loyal pet a girl could want and saved her life on several occasions. Of course, he also tried to kill her when she first changed into a crow.
“That was funny,” Quinny said when Heather mentioned nearly being eaten by her own spider.
“It wasn't funny, and I didn't realize I could communicate telepathically, or I would have told him to stop,” Heather grumbled. She pitched to the side as the thump of Legeis's armor became more rapid, and the palanquin picked up speed.
“Are we at a full run?” Heather asked and leaned out the door to see they were. “What’s the hurry?”
“This forest must have them on edge,” Breanne suggested. “Whoever owns it probably knows we are here, and I am sure Frank and the others have considered that.”
“What do we have to worry about?” Heather asked with a raised brow. “We're not exactly regular players. If we run across some zombies, Quinny can just go talk to them.”
“Hardly,” Quinny laughed and explained that she had no control over other players undead or even wild undead. Heather nodded as she remembered Frank telling her something similar before. He had no control over wild ghouls though they wouldn't attack him unless he attacked first.
They discussed the forest, wild undead, and what they hoped to find in a town for nearly an hour when the palanquin came to another sudden stop. Heather poked her head out to see the road was made of sunken mossy cobble with thick grass growing on either side. The trees hung over the road under a gloomy sky, and she saw an occasional raindrop in the chill air. Frank and Legeis pointed to the right and said something as Blackbast looked back to the girls.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Is something wrong?” Heather called out.
Frank turned around and began walking toward the palanquin, urging them to come see what they found. Heather climbed out and grabbed her spider as Quinny and Breanne joined her and walked to meet Frank. To the right was a dense wall of gnarled trees, but stonework could be seen beyond the trunks. Something was hidden just out of sight, and there was a gate ahead on the side of the road.
“What is it?” Quinny asked excitedly as they approached Legeis and Blackbast.
“It’s a graveyard,” Frank replied. “A big one with a massive building on a hill.”
“A graveyard?” Heather repeated as they arrived beside Legeis, where they could look beyond the metal gate. Sure enough, the land beyond was a series of low hills dotted with tombstones and sporadic trees. Stone walkways spread like spiders webs across the landscape, with all paths eventually leading to a distant stone building perched at the peak of a hill. An old wagon was parked to one side, and a tipped wheelbarrow rested just inside the gate. Heavy mists drifted and curled in the low areas between the hills, giving the entire landscape a haunted appearance.
“Well, this is interesting,” Heather remarked and approached the gates.
“What are you doing?” Blackbast demanded as Heather reached the open gate.
“Having a look inside,” Heather replied with a smirk. “It’s only a graveyard.”
“Maybe we shouldn't,” Frank suggested. “I don't see anything moving around, but a lot of undead can wait underground and ambush players.”
“I want to explore it too,” Quinny said and moved to join Heather, who now wore a smug smile.
Frank shrugged and moved to follow as Blackbast looked at Breanne in disbelief.
“We are undead,” Breanne answered the lost expression. “Even if we are ambushed, we will be at full power in a graveyard.”
“I just want to see what’s in that big building,” Heather added. “It will only take five minutes.”
“It will take fifteen minutes just to walk there,” Blackbast pointed out, then gestured to the palanquin where Umtha was now standing and looking concerned. “And what about her?”
Frank suggested Umtha would probably want to stay with the egg and walked back to ask her. She returned with him to ask them to take the palanquin into the graveyard. Blackbast relented since it was already on her magic disc and would follow anyway. As a group, they entered the graveyard with Heather leading the way and walking directly up the main path to the distant building.
“I wonder if it’s another ghoul player,” Heather said as they passed by rows of old gravestones.
“It could be anybody,” Frank replied. “Even a regular human could be a grave dancer.”
“Yeah, but it makes sense for an undead player to be one,” Heather continued as they started to climb a hill. Despite their concerns, nothing stirred in the mists or the ground as they drew closer to the large building. There was an eerie silence over the area broken only by the distant call of a crow. Drawing closer, the dark gray structure emerged from the gloom as a giant mausoleum of sorts. A long stone rectangle with a dozen pillars flanking each side. The stone roof rose to a peak that ran the structure's entire length. The walls were fifteen meters high and divided into two sections. The lower half was smooth, mossy stone, but the upper half was inlaid with images. From a brief examination, they appeared to be scenes of funerals showing coffins being carried or lowered into pits. One showed a man with arms spread and radiating lines as he gazed down on what looked like a body. It had a very gothic sort of style as they approached the wide-open archway in the front.
“That doorway is twice Frank’s height,” Breanne observed. “Let’s hope nothing that large lives inside.”
“If it does, it will be a good exercise in learning that curiosity kills the cat,” Blackbast growled as Heather shook her head and pressed on.
Up three broad steps, she stood before the wide portal that was the entrance. The inside was a vast single chamber of stone pews flanking a worn red runner that ran right up the center. Dirt and leaves were piled in the corners where the wind had blown them long ago, giving the place a feeling of abandonment. Along the walls were ornate nooks decorated with mosaics of people or scenes. Stone tables rested below these mosaics, often covered in candles whose wax had run over their holders and coated the stone. At the very far end was a large stone platform that seemed to be an alter or perhaps an elegant table. Nothing rested on its surface except a fine layer of dust, and the sides were carved with a winding pattern of thorny vines and roses. A round stained glass window dominated the very back wall made up of mostly red hues but with orange and yellow to lighten the effect. It echoed the rose motif with a single large flower dominating its center.
“Well,” Heather began as she stepped into the space. “It’s empty.”
“It’s neat,” Quinny added as she walked down the red rug. “I love that window.”
“Is this like a church?” Heather pondered as the group filed in and looked about the strange structure.
“Unless there is a divine whose symbol is rose, I doubt it,” Breanne replied before moving to inspect one of the mosaics on the wall. “These appear to be family portraits.”
“How can you tell?” Quinny asked as she too looked at the image of a man with short hair and a great cloak thrown over one shoulder.
“I can't tell. I am simply offering a possible explanation,” Breanne retorted and moved to the next image. “But they all have a striking resemblance to one another.”
“So it's like a family tomb?” Heather asked and looked at Frank. “Can you see anything familiar to your grave dancer class?”
“I could build something like this if I wanted to,” he admitted and scratched at his head. “But so could a lot of other classes.”
“This world has too much overlap,” Heather groaned and headed for the large platform beneath the window. She set Webster down before it and ran a finger across the smooth marbled surface. Leaving a trail in the dust, she was finally able to see the dark black marble with red flecks hidden beneath. Blowing to clear more of the surface, she choked on the cloud before admiring the unusual stone.
“I love that stone too,” Quinny said as she joined her. “I might try to build something like this in my forest.”
“But what is this place for?” Heather asked. “Do they have funerals in here or something?”
Quinny froze a moment, her featureless mask betraying nothing of her thoughts. She turned to the others and pointed to the table, asking if maybe Heather was right.
“It would make sense,” Blackbast replied. “A sort of chapel in the graveyard to say your goodbyes to the dead.”
“Seems kind of pointless,” Heather remarked as she turned around. “Nobody really dies in this place.”
“It’s probably meant to be thematic,” Blackbast replied. “I doubt anybody actually uses it.”
“You might be wrong about that,” Legeis interrupted from where he stood near the door. He pointed into the yard with his armored suit and informed them that somebody was coming.
The group hurried back to the door and saw three men leading an old horse as it drew a slender cart. Lanterns hung from poles affixed to the cart illuminated the faces, but from this distance, they appeared as nothing more than lights.
“What are they doing?” Frank asked as the group arrived before the graveyard gate and turned to enter.
Legeis adjusted his goggles to zoom in and took a moment to look over the scene. Though the mist seemed to be growing, it was clear the cart carried a wooden coffin. The three men were all human and dressed in dirty pants and coats. Two of them wore flat hats, while the third was completely bald. They walked together, leading the horse and cart as they took a winding stone path to the side of the yard. Legeis conveyed the entire scene as they watched the men go about their chores.
“They are here to bury somebody? But bodies despawn and vanish after a while.” Heather remarked as they watched the strange procession. “Does this make any sense to you guys?”
“None,” Frank admitted. “Unless somebody is being very fancy about burying bodies to earn points.”
“It's a great deal of trouble they are going to,” Breanne agreed.
“Something about this is not right,” Blackbast said in a menacing low growl. “We should have stayed on the road and continued.”
“As unnecessary as it is, it is just a funeral,” Heather argued. “Don't you feel the least bit curious to know why?”
“As I said before, curiosity has a tendency to kill cats,” Blackbast replied with a shake of her head.
“Well, I want to know more,” Heather replied and bent down to speak to Webster. “Can you sneak closer and find out what they are saying?”
The spider bobbed silently and scurried into the yard in a meandering path. Heather was not at all surprised when he vanished from sight halfway to the strange procession. She smiled and closed her eyes, looking through his and coming to terms with the peculiar perspective. He was moving around the tombstones that towered over him like great statues. Since he was so close to the ground, the mist was more like fog, but as he drew closer, he opted to leap to the top of a nearby tombstone. From this vantage point, Heather could see the men clearly as they passed just meters away. There were shovels in the cart beside the rather plain-looking coffin whose lid appeared to be nailed tight.
“Serves him right,” the man leading the horse said. “Shouldn’t upset the lady as he did.”
“Strangers should show more manners,” the bald man replied.
“Manners is not what his type possesses. Oh, he was an arrogant one. Going on and on about how his light would burn away the darkness.”
The third man turned about to laugh at the coffin and address whoever was inside. “Fat lot of good your fancy words did you. I told you to be gone before sunset, but you said you didn't fear the darkness.”
“Bah, paladins,” the man leading the horse spat. “They think they have the right to boss people around. He was warned that he wasn't in his homeland. He needed to show some respect for the lady.”
The bald man laughed and held up a hand to halt the procession. “Let’s bury the fool here,” he said and pointed to an empty patch of dirt.
“Aye, we don't want to be out when the moon is up,” the third man agreed. “Let's throw him in a hole and get back before the wolves start howling.”
“What are they saying?” Breanne asked as Heather listened through Webster. She relayed every word to the group and then described the scene as the men began to dig.
“They are burying a paladin?” Frank questioned. “Then this has to be somebody's graveyard, and this is all for points.”
“Are those NPCs?” Heather asked. “They talk like this is normal for them, and they are afraid of the night.”
“They talk like NPCs,” Frank agreed and scratched at his head. “I like this idea of having some NPC’s to bury the dead for me.”
“I wonder who this lady is,” Legeis said as he leaned over the side of his armor. “She might be worth avoiding.”
“Or at the very least not being rude to,” Heather quipped and closed her eyes again. “Sheesh, they dig fast. All three of them are throwing dirt like Frank does.”
The group waited for Heather to hear more, but all they talked about was getting the job done before nightfall. Finally, they finished the hole and, with absolutely no ceremony, dragged the coffin off the cart and tossed it in. They filled the hole in, and the bald man hurried them on, saying it was time to get back to town.
“A town is nearby,” Heather said excitedly. “I just heard them say they needed to get back to it.”
“It must be close,” Frank suggested as he looked up. “The sun has been in the evening position since we entered the forest. I bet it’s less than an hour away from moving.”
“So we follow them back to town,” Heather suggested as Blackbast folded her arms.
“I see why you get into so much trouble,” Blackbast said as she glared at Heather. “Must you go where there will obviously be danger?”
Heather folded her arms right back and pointed out that her life was constantly in danger. She needed more experience with the world and its players, and this was a bit of a mystery worth exploring. Blackbast didn't seem impressed and reminded her that she already had the egg and this mysterious hand to keep her occupied. She didn't need any more distractions on her journey.
“Oh, common,” Heather pleaded. “Look at this place; it screams undead. I bet this lady is some kind of ghost like Breanne.”
“Even if you are right, that doesn’t mean she will welcome you with open arms,” Blackbast countered.
Heather had to admit that was true but pointed out this lady had killed a paladin. As far as she was concerned, that made her a possible ally. At the very least, they could quietly enter the town and see what they could learn about her. If it sounded too dangerous, they would leave and march on through the night.
“We can't be on the road at night. What about the wolves?” Quinny teased as Heather rolled her eyes.
“Don't roll your eyes. There are types of wolves more than capable of being a challenge even to us,” Breanne remarked.
“Bah,” Quinny laughed with a wave of her arm. “Nothing that dangerous will be out here. All the deadly stuff is in the wilds beyond the spawn points.”
“A player with enough points to change the weather might have used points to buy blood wolves or devil dogs,” Breanne countered.
“Oh, I hadn't thought of that,” Quinny replied as she looked around. “Still, so long as we stay on the road, we should be fine.”
“Why would staying on the roads make us fine?” Heather questioned.
Frank answered and explained that most players provided a safe road through their lands. It was considered a social courtesy though it wasn’t absolutely followed by all players. He suggested they follow the horse cart at a safe distance and find this town as soon as possible.
The group set off as the horse cart passed through the gate. Webster met them at the gate and chattered in Heather's head about still being hungry. Just to satiate him, she summoned a cloud of bats and tried not to notice as he pounced on one and fed.
“Found a use for that spell after all,” Breanne laughed as she waved a bat out of her face.
Once outside the gate, the three girls took to the palanquin as Frank, Legeis, and Blackbast walked to keep the strange horse cart in view. They were perhaps twenty minutes in when the forest on the left opened up to reveal a shoddy farm with a gothic-looking house sporting a sagging slate roof. Lights could be seen in the windows, but nothing moved in the yard, not even a chicken. Beyond this farm, they found another with fields planted thick with some kind of vegetable. Additional fields were set aside for hay, and several stacks stood along a stone wall. Heather wondered what animal was eating all that hay as they saw nothing but the horse dragging the cart.
Three farms later, they turned a bend in the road, and the land became more hilly. Here they encountered a stone bridge across a steep crevice that flowed with water. The horse cart had vanished around a bend ahead, and Blackbast urged them to pick up the pace. Rounding the bend, Heather leaned out the window with a pleased smile. Ahead lay a town of perhaps two dozen buildings with the same gothic style and mist thatch or slate roofs. Smoke drifted from half the chimneys, and lights shone in nearly every window. The men went to a building near the edge of town that looked like a barn and took the horse inside. When they came out, they not only closed the door but lowered a large wooden plank across it that they secured with a sturdy padlock.
“A little overprotective,” Heather said as they drew nearer.
“They must have good cause to want to keep the animal safe,” Breanne said as they came perilously close to the town.
“Umtha, maybe you should take the egg and go into the magic room,” Heather suggested as she surveyed the town. As interested as she was in the place, there was always the chance people would react badly to a goblin. By putting both the egg and Umtha in the magical space, she could feel more relaxed as they explored.
Umtha readily agreed, and Legeis stopped the procession so the egg could be removed from its secure enclosure. Umtha warned Heather not to linger in this town too long. She said the spirits were restless and then took the egg through the magical door to the hidden room beyond.
“Well, that's unsettling,” Heather said as they turned back to the town. “The last time she gave us a warning, a sand demon attacked.”
“I do not trust her,” Blackbast said with narrow eyes.
“We all know she is hiding something,” Heather said with a shake of her head. “But so far, she has been a good friend, and her goblins help defend our homes.”
“I still can’t tell if she is a player or an NPC,” Quinny remarked.
“I would bet she is a player,” Legeis said and looked down at the others. “If you talk to her in goblin, she carries on as we do. She only repeats herself or behaves clueless when you talk to her in English.”
“Why the act, though?” Heather said. “If she wanted to help, why not tell us what she wanted?”
“I still think she is an NPC,” Frank suggested. “She is one of the advanced ones like Kevin's dragon or the guard captain in Gwen's city.”
“Perhaps,” Blackbast said in a questioning tone. “We can talk about this later. The sun is about to move, and night will be on us. Go, explore and ask your questions so we can press on before you get into any trouble.”
Heather nodded and shook out her long red hair before straightening her dress. The metallic horns on her head glistened in the light of lanterns hung from posts along the road. Before she took a single step, a voice called out, and the bald man from the graveyard appeared.
“More strangers,” he said as if tired of the very thought. “I suppose you will need someplace to stay for the night.”
“Oh, probably not,” Heather replied with a smile. “We’re only going to be here an hour or two.”
“Roads not fit to travel at night,” the man said as he looked Heather up and down. “But then you look accustomed to walking in the darkness.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Heather remarked, not sure if she had been insulted.
“Don't mean nothing by it,” the man replied and looked past her to see the palanquin. “I can lock your wagon up in the barn for the night. Won't be safe to leave it in the street, and your guards can't be carrying it around.”
“We don't carry it,” Frank interjected, but the man was already dishing out a ring of keys and motioning them to follow.
“We can’t let him lock it up for the night,” Blackbast hissed. “We mean to move on before morning.”
Heather sighed and rushed to stop the man before he got to the barn. She explained that her wagon was magically protected and would be safe on its own. However, she did agree to put it beside the barn and out of sight at the man's insistence. Blackbast dismissed her magical disk allowing the palanquin to rest on the ground before turning to look at the strange man.
“So what is the name of this town?” she asked when she had rejoined the group.
“This is Mystbrook,” the man replied. Heather rolled her eyes again and muttered the word “original” under her breath. “In the country of Harpshure.”
“And who is the leader of this country of Harpshure?” Blackbast pressed with tail twitching.
The man froze and turned to look at the group with deep, worried eyes. “You mean you don't know?” He muttered and went silent for a long moment. “The dark lady, Lydia Valrossa, queen of Harpshure, is our patron.”
“Which house is hers?” Heather asked as she scanned the town.
“She lives there,” the man replied with a pointed finger.
They turned to see a tall craggy hill to the north of town just as the sun moved. The moon rose behind it, illuminating a castle of high walls, turrets, and slender pointed roofs. Gigantic banners hung from the walls, but they couldn't see them clearly in the darkness. A narrow drawbridge spanned a chasm to a towering black gate that appeared to be the only entrance. Mist crawled all about the base of the walls, and above it, bats flew in random directions. Fires burned in stone braziers scattered about the walls casting flickering lights that only added to the mystery.
Heather turned to look at her gathered friends as a cold chill ran down her spine.
“Well, I kinda like her style.”